Darren Bent For England…Again?

It’s not often a regular 20 goal a season Premier League striker isn’t seen as a regular for the England side, but Darren Bent has bucked the trend with his continued failure to break through on to the international scene.

Since arriving at Sunderland last summer, Bent’s goal scoring record has been nothing short of sensational. The former Tottenham forward has scored an incredible 29 times in just 44 appearances.

But 24 of these goals last season were not enough for Bent to go to South Africa with Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad. It does pose the question of what more Bent can do to persuade the Italian that he is the answer to England’s inevitable problems upfront.

Bent must be praised for his bold decision to leave the comfort of a fashionable club to try and get the games, and goals to persuade Capello he was worthy of a place in the World Cup squad. But unfortunately for Bent, who did everything in his power to get selected, Capello opted for the experience of Emile Heskey instead.

To his credit the Italian did include Bent in his squad for the opening Euro 2012 qualifiers, and the likeable forward responded with a well taken goal in the 3-1 win over Switzerland in Basel. Now after three goals in his last three Premier League games, is Bent sent to be a mainstay in not only the England squad, but the England side as well?

I certainly hope he gets his chance, because he has earned it. The likes of Paul Robinson and Wes Brown retired after been left out of the World Cup squad, but Bent got his head down, and set about forcing his way in to the side.

Given the chance I have no doubt that Bent could become a prolific scorer at international level. He has an instinctive goal-scoring nature. Yes he may require several chances to score goals, but the fact of that matter is that more then often he does find the back of the net.

That sort of quality doesn’t change no matter what level you’re playing at, and in my opinion Bent just need a series of chances to prove himself. The only remaining question is, will he get these chances?

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4 Comments

King EricSeptember 27, 2010

I was shocked when he wasn’t selected for the World Cup squad for England this past Summer over the likes of Emile Heskey who wasn’t even playing regular team football throughout the season, much less having a positive impact for his club. Like the article correctly points out, what more can he do? I’ve been a fan of his since he went to Sunderland last season and thought he’d fit in well there.

He’s maintained a positive attitude through it all and would no doubt be a menacing partnership w/Rooney for any top world defences. He deserves a real chance nontheless; I mean who else do England really have at the moment, especially w/the likes of Defoe and Zamora out with injury. He’s been in consistent form and has shown time and time again that he has matured into a goalscorer.

He’s at a ripe age and England would be foolish not to permanently include him in their squad. Doing so would undoubtedly do wonders for his confidence knowing that he has a stable place in the squad and take enormous pressures off of his shoulders.

It seems as though only after the World Cup, Capello is making decisions that most involved in football would see as no brainers and would have expected before South Africa, not only after inevitable failure given his tactics and squad selections.

To say that Bent requires several chances to score goals as if that distinguishes him from other centre forwards is disingenuous in the extreme, he has a fantastic record in club football and in almost any other country he would be a regular feature on the international stage, it sounds like exactly the same thing which was said about Andy Cole when Glenn Hoddle refused to pick him for England despite him being a world class English centre forward. Bent will be a credit to England and a threat to everyone else if chosen, it just remains to be seen whether he’s going to get that chance in an England shirt. As an England fan I really hope he does, he is a truly remarkable centre forward.

England’s international team for years has always tried to stick with the idea of the older and more experienced players. That’s great, except it gives the younger players no chance to play anything real at an international level. Emile Heskey should never have been on the plane, and let’s say nothing about David James. For 10 years England have been struggling for a keeper as they keep falling back on the older players who never really did a great deal to impress in the first place.

Was great to see Bent score for England a couple of weeks ago and show he can do it on the international level when given a chance. When guys only get 20 mins and don’t score, it adds weight to sticking with the more experienced players (who were probably taken off having none nothing for the first 70 mins…), but at some point you have to say “OK, we need to spend a year or two letting the younger players get some experience and start to work together”. Seemed to work pretty well for Germany…